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Steve Chiotakis: At 9.5 percent, the U.S. and the Eurozone unemployment rates are exactly the same.
In this country, it’s a 26-year high. On the continent, it’s the worst in a decade.
The latest on their report from our man in London, Stephen Beard.

STEPHEN BEARD: These figures are bad enough, but many economists expect them to get much worse. That’s due to what’s happening in the Eurozone’s largest economy — Germany. So far the worst effects of the deep recession there have been cushioned. Rather than lay off large numbers of staff, German exporting companies have kept them on working a shorter week — often with government subsidy. But says Simon Tillford of the Centre for European Reform that’s unlikely to last.

SIMON TILLFORD: We’re not going to see a rapid bounce back in world trade and in German exports. Hence German companies are going to start laying off workers in large numbers over the next six months.

And that he says will drag the Eurozone unemployment rate much higher. He expects it to hit more than 11 percent by the end of next year.

In London this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.